It doesn't really hold together on a logical level, but it's fascinating and powerfully emotional.
The Jacket (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:154
Fresh:68
Rotten:86
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The Jacket is a case of creepy style over substance.
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Thriller
Synopsis: Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (THE PIANIST) stars in THE JACKET, an intense psychological thriller about a Gulf War veteran who finds himself trapped inside another terrifying scenario. Shot in the... Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (THE PIANIST) stars in THE JACKET, an intense psychological thriller about a Gulf War veteran who finds himself trapped inside another terrifying scenario. Shot in the head while in Iraq, Jack Starks (Brody) has returned home only to be convicted of a murder that he didn't commit. Still reeling from his wartime trauma, Jack is found not guilty by reason of insanity and is committed to an institution for the criminally insane. Once there, he is drugged by the evil Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson) and placed into a coffin-like drawer on a nightly basis. Inside the drawer, after being tormented with horrific war flashbacks, Jack is mysteriously transported to the future, where he forms a tender relationship with the hardened, beautiful Jackie (Keira Knightley). Aware that he is destined to die in four days, Jack must use his new gift to figure out what happened to him, with the hopes of altering the course of history. Directed by John Maybury (LOVE IS THE DEVIL), THE JACKET features another electrifying performance from Brody. Acclaimed artist Brian Eno contributes a transcendent score, which contrasts beautifully with Peter Deming's stark cinematography. As the weary Jackie, Knightley proves once again that she's more than just a pretty face. [More]
Starring: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Daniel Craig, Kris Kristofferson
Starring: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Daniel Craig, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch, MacKenzie Phillips, Brad Renfro
Director: John Maybury
Director: John Maybury
Story: Marc Rocco
Screenwriter: Massy Tadjedin, Tom Bleecker
Producer: Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney, Peter Guber
Composer: Brian Eno
Studio: Warner Independent
Reviews for The Jacket
Ultimately it doesn't amount to much, but like Starks' drug-induced trip, The Jacket is about the journey not the destination.
Part of the fun with twisty time-travel movies is in trying to figure out what's going on and The Jacket delivers nicely on that score, keeping you guessing till the end.
Weighs in on a paltry premise but ultimately pays off in tension and redemption.
Eventually abandons its trippy sense of mind-bending mystery for life-is-beautiful affirmation: a Reader's Digest message camouflaged within Nine Inch Nails grisliness.
The ending is a giant anticlimax that only gets more frustrating the more you think about it.
I appreciate the way the story is developed, taking audiences into The Twilight Zone, but not leaving them stranded there.
I enjoyed the electroshock ambience, and accepted the ride as a jumped-up sci-fi mystery.
Maybury, whose background in experimental film influences his style, keeps The Jacket grounded in the familiar while its sense of reality remains shrewdly vague.
The Jacket is an uncategorizable little film; part romance, part horror, part mind-bending dimensional study
The Jacket is a horrifyingly strange and cluttered but innately fascinating movie-going experience, especially with Adrien Brody's layered performance at the helm.
On each level: the human, the futuristic, the romantic, the legal, the ironic -- it remains consistent and compelling. Steven King and M. Night Shyamalan: take a lesson.
That the movie never attempts to even offer an explanation of its weird science exemplifies the haphazardness that dominates the picture.
Too much light shines through the holes of the plot, the tone gets stuck on the B-movie level, and the underpinnings of romance and revenge are trite for all the fancy trimmings.
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